Off-BRAND: The fallacy of encouraging beef herd retention through insurance subsidies

Key Points

• High beef prices and the smallest cattle herd since the late 1940s have prompted the Trump administration to implement a number of policy initiatives to boost beef supplies.
• One such program is the Beef Retention and National Development endorsement for Livestock Risk Protection, an endorsement on the current livestock insurance program that would allow cow-calf operators who retain heifers for breeding purposes to “insure” the value of selling the heifer over a two-year period.
• The insurance proposal is fundamentally flawed in concept, would likely be costly to operate, and could distort production decisions. In the near term, this would result in higher cattle and beef prices and prolong economic adjustment in the sector.